Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

But it
happened, according to John Hickenlooper's recent account on Colorado
Public Radio. When Archbishop Charles Chaput left town 18 months ago for
Philadelphia, he invited the governor to breakfast, where they spent a
"significant amount of time" talking about the death penalty.

When
Hickenlooper told Chaput he'd always been "sort of an eye for an eye
person," Chaput retorted that "there's no language like that anywhere in
the New Testament," adding that "to a large extent, Catholic theology
is based upon forgiveness, and that only God has a right to make that
decision."

Clarity from the governor may be needed
sooner rather than later now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to
hear the appeal of Nathan Dunlap, who sits on death row for the 1993
murder of four at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese. And while you can never
count out a good defense team, Dunlap's time is running out. Arapahoe
County prosecutors last week said they'd consult with the attorney
general and then file a motion asking the district court to "lift the
current stay of execution, issue a warrant and set a week for the
execution."

But Hickenlooper can stop that execution and, when the time comes, should.

He
should commute Dunlap's sentence to life in prison without parole even
if he hasn't fully arrived at Chaput's view of the death penalty. It
should be enough for the governor that Dunlap's execution would be
singularly absurd, from almost any standpoint you care to examine.

Colorado may not officially have abolished the death penalty — yet — but it may as well have.

Clarity from the governor may be needed
sooner rather than later now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to
hear the appeal of Nathan Dunlap, who sits on death row for the 1993
murder of four at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese. And while you can never
count out a good defense team, Dunlap's time is running out. Arapahoe
County prosecutors last week said they'd consult with the attorney
general and then file a motion asking the district court to "lift the
current stay of execution, issue a warrant and set a week for the
execution."

But Hickenlooper can stop that execution and, when the time comes, should.

He
should commute Dunlap's sentence to life in prison without parole even
if he hasn't fully arrived at Chaput's view of the death penalty. It
should be enough for the governor that Dunlap's execution would be
singularly absurd, from almost any standpoint you care to examine.

Colorado may not officially have abolished the death penalty — yet — but it may as well have.

Colorado’s death penalty is not only massively expensive, critics say it is also unconstitutional because it is so randomly sought.

A study released last year by DU Law Professors Justin Marceau and
Sam Kamin showed that from 1999 to 2010, 92 percent of 544 Colorado
murders had at least one of the aggravating factors that need to be
present for a defendant to be eligible for death, yet the death penalty
was sought in only five of those cases — less than 1 percent.

One of his attorneys, David Lane, argues that while the Supreme Court
has instructed states to narrow the field of who qualifies for the
death penalty, Colorado has done the opposite, creating so many
aggravating factors that death could be sought in just about every
murder committed in Colorado. With 92 percent of Colorado murder cases
being eligible for the death penalty, but with death being sought so
rarely in the state, Lane says, “The only check is prosecutorial
discretion.”

He notes that the only Colorado death filings recently have come from
the 18th Judicial District of Douglas and Arapahoe counties where he
says prosecutors “are in love with the death penalty.” With only one
judicial district ever seeking the death penalty, Lane says the death
penalty is pursued randomly in Colorado, thus making it
unconstitutional.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.